PRIME MINISTER - Mark Reviews Movies

Prime Minister, Magnolia Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 12, 2025

It's not every day that one can say a politician genuinely appears to be an ordinary, grounded, and generally nice person, so there's some novelty to the documentary Prime Minister, about Jacinda Ardern's tenure in the eponymous role in New Zealand. Behind the scenes, Ardern states quite bluntly that she doesn't really want the job—not because of the position itself and everything that comes with, but because she's not certain she's the right person for such a job. Humility is another quality one typically doesn't associate with politicians, so that's yet another pleasant surprise.

Ardern came to the international spotlight for a pair of terrible events. One was the mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, which resulted in the deaths of 51 people. The other was the COVID-19 pandemic. The Prime Minister's responses to both of these tragedies were commendable at the time, for how much compassion she directly displayed toward the victims of the first and how she kept the need to preserve the lives of as many citizens as possible in the second.

Speaking about her reactions to each, Ardern points out how disheartening it is that such qualities are seen as anomalies in the realm of politics. If a government official isn't thinking and acting with the welfare of the population in mind, what use is that official in the first place? The fact that Ardern was essentially pushed out of office after loud, persistent, and ultimately violent protests against the welfare of citizens in the midst of the ongoing pandemic was a pretty clear sign of where many countries around the world seem to be heading.

This documentary, directed by Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe, follows Ardern's time as the prime minister of New Zealand, from 2017 to her resignation in early 2023. It's a collection of both archival footage, of course, and, more prominently, recordings taken by her partner (and later husband) Clarke Gayford, who's subtly an unsung hero in this film. That's not to take away from Ardern's accomplishments, obviously, but it is to point out that Gayford mostly keeps himself out of this narrative.

When he interviews his partner at home or at the office, there's a particular tone and method to his questioning. He's trying to be objective, almost as a joke since that would be impossible under the circumstances, but his questions are almost always about how Ardern is feeling and doing at any given moment. Sure, those are queries that most politicians want to avoid, as Ardern does quite skillfully while in the United States and being asked about that country's president at the time, so to get answers from her in the midst of difficult situations is enlightening.

What's more notable, though, is how much love and deep respect we can hear from Gayford in those questions. It's little wonder he keeps himself off-camera or on the sidelines in this story, because he knows his own story means little compared to the woman about whom he feels that way.

This also means, though, that Ardern herself is more open, frank, and honest than one might expect to hear from a politician at the height of her career and with, as she must have thought at the time, a future in government service to maintain. If she had known that a group of angry and misinformed people would make it their sole goal to ruin her career and reputation, one wonders what else she might have said. Since Ardern comes across as so thoughtful and compassionate throughout this film, it's tough to argue that she'd say or do much different.

We get that sense, at least, over the course of this profile, which begins with Ardern taking over leadership of her political party, having to put together a nationwide campaign for herself and other sitting or potential members of Parliament, and winning in as close to a landslide as is likely possible in a system with several political parties vying for seats. From there, it would seem as straightforward as pushing a legislative agenda and trying to get support for those policies.

Instead, Ardern learns she's pregnant, and now, she has to deal with the "controversy" of being a woman in power who will also be a new mother. The balancing act is tough (Gayford steps up quite naturally to help), and we get glimpses of that—Ardern trying to breastfeed while going over piles of documents, bringing her baby to the United Nations, and feeling the pressure of representing that women are more than capable of this against vocal criticism that she must be failing in at least one of her main roles. She's quite frank about addressing that, especially to her partner and in audio recordings of interviews being conducted by the country's National Library.

The rest of the narrative is a bit of a rush of recent New Zealand and international history, seen from Ardern's perspective as both someone who can empathize with others and a leader with the power to aim that empathy toward some benefit for society. That was particularly true of her response to the Christchurch shootings and COVID-19, when her decision to put lives over economic worries actually resulted in New Zealand beating the pandemic for a while (until much of the rest of the world failed in the same mission).

Ardern's attitude, personality, and leadership methods felt refreshing then, but they feel almost unthinkable now, as misinformation and pettiness and vengeance have overtaken a significant part of everyday politics. Prime Minister shows a politician can be kind, considerate, and sincere, while also making differences that reflect those characteristics.

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